Mr. Speaker, first let me thank the chairman of the House Administration Committee for his generosity and leadership, and we truly appreciate his being the epitome of the mayor of this great…
Mr. Speaker, first let me thank the chairman of the House Administration Committee for his generosity and leadership, and we truly appreciate his being the epitome of the mayor of this great community. I thank the manager of this legislation as well.
I rise today, Mr. Speaker, because sometimes when we reflect on history, if we do not tell the truth of history, it is lost. It gives me a great privilege to come and to acknowledge the origins and the story of the placing of Sojourner Truth, an abolitionist and a suffragette, in the halls of the United States Capitol. Born in 1797, passing in 1883, she was truly an historical figure, and she was a vision of Dr. C. Delores Tucker, the original president of the National Congress of Black Women.
The story begins, as we look in the early years of my coming to the United States Congress, of the women who were characterized and sculptured as suffragettes. In fact, when I came, the stone sculpture was in the basement of this place. It was the leadership of the Women's Caucus, Carolyn Maloney, then the Chair, and others who wanted to lift that stone women's sculpture that represented the women who had been suffragettes to a presence of respect. We joined in that, women of all walks of life and all ethnic and racial backgrounds. But we noticed one difference: The presence of Sojourner Truth was not there. That became the cause of C. Delores Tucker, the late president, the former Secretary of State of the National Congress of Black Women. So we worked and worked.
I offer my appreciation to the now Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who was sensitive to this and has helped us to hold this wonderful ceremony next week. I offer my appreciation to the former Chair of the House Administration Committee, the Honorable Juanita Millender-McDonald, Congresswoman Diane Watson, and the many women who understood our plea to respect Sojourner Truth. I'm delighted to have carried the initial legislation and to have joined with my sisters in helping to propose the funding for this sculpture. We managed to do this in the short period of time that was given to us over a 2-year period and to recognize a woman that could be both a suffragette and an abolitionist. On this day, April 28, we will honor the idea of fighting for women's rights and the abolition of slavery, intertwined, a woman.
Might I also suggest to you that there is no African American woman sculpture in the entire body of this United States Capitol. There is one African American man, Dr. Martin Luther King, and a few pictures. We hope to see soon the statue of Rosa Parks. So we are making history on April 28, and, again, we are grateful for this.
Might I share with you the words of this young woman, Sojourner Truth, who explained what being a slave was all about. She was a powerful speaker. And she would tell listeners of how some slaves were kept cowed and afraid to act by beatings, sometimes with spikes, sticks, and chains. She, herself, as a teenager, had been taken into the barn by her master one afternoon for absolutely no reason and tied up by the wrists. Then he tore the shirt from her back and whipped her with a bundle of sticks until her back bled. In a voice contemporarily described as rich and deep, she described how she refused to give him the satisfaction of screaming
by clinching her fists so hard, her fingernails drew blood from her palms. She was heard to have said when she was recognized by a speaker in the front of the room by saying, ``Yes, sir, what do you want?'' she said, and ``Ain't I a woman?'' Regal with a deep voice but committed to the fight.
And so I'm delighted that the National Congress of Black Women under the leadership of Dr. C. Delores Tucker provided us with the Sojourner Truth crusade. We thank her current president, Dr. E. Faye Williams, and we certainly thank all of those who worked with our office for providing this opportunity. Might I also thank the Senate sponsor who was a champion, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, now the Secretary of State, who worked without tiring to provide us the partnership on this legislation. Arlen Specter, Carl Levin, Senator Lott were great champions of this effort.
Mr. Speaker and to the chairman, what we have is a fulfillment of the dream of Dr. C. Delores Tucker.
And I am so glad that I was not only able to provide the legislation for holding this ceremony but the actual legislation to pass this House and this Senate in order to provide us with the presence of Sojourner Truth in the body of this United States Capitol.
Again, we could not do it without the chairman of the House Administration Committee, Chairman Brady. We thank him again for his generosity and the ranking member. And I believe that what we will now do is tell the complete and full story that suffragettes came in many diverse forms, that of an ex-slave, an abolitionist, and a person who advocated for the freedom and empowerment of women. How proud I am to stand here as the author of the original legislation in the name and in tribute to Dr. C. Delores Tucker and as well the legislation that will allow us to celebrate this on April 28, Pay Parity Day, 2009.
I thank the Speaker for her leadership and her assistance in all of this. May we be benefited for all the history that has been expanded in the Capitol.
Mr. Speaker, I stand in support of H. Con. Res. 86 to authorize the use of Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center for the unveiling of the bust of Sojourner Truth. As a senior Member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and a tireless advocate for minorities and women, I am honored to reintroduce this resolution.
Sojourner Truth was a towering figure among the founders of the movement for women's suffrage in the United States.
She was born Isabella Baumfree in 1797 in a plantation in upper New York. As a slave, she endured cruel and harsh beatings and rape. In late 1826, Ms. Truth escaped to freedom to the home of the Van Wagener's, who paid her owner $20 to keep her from having to return to his plantation. She lived with the Van Wageners until the New York State Emancipation Act was approved a year later.
After living through 30 years of slavery, Sojourner Truth became a leading voice for the abolitionist and the equal rights for women movements. She was a suffragist before it was acceptable to be one and worked to end slavery and improve the conditions of African-Americans before, during, and after the Civil War.
In 1864, Sojourner Truth was received by then-President Lincoln in the White House. Today, we have our first African-American President, and our first woman Speaker of the House--it is truly time for Sojourner to be properly received in the Capitol.
Sojourner Truth said, ``Truth is powerful and prevails''. While she did not get to see her rights and those of women like her fully realized, Ms. Truth changed the evolution of the path which woman had to take, and continue to take, to gain equal rights. Ms. Truth is one of the founding mothers of the women's rights movement.
Depicting American history in full color instead of as an all-white occurence is an ongoing enterprise. Omitting Sojourner Truth from the Portrait Monument, which includes Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, now in the Rotunda of the Capitol, is the equivalent of memorializing the Declaration of Independence without Thomas Jefferson, or the Revolutionary War without George Washington.
The suffrage movement was not a white women's movement alone. Its ranks included woman of all races and ethnicities. These included African American, Hispanic, and Asian women. It included rich and poor alike. Sojourner Truth's now famous speech, ``And Ain't I a Women?'' at the 1851 Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio rallied a crowd of dispirited and concerned group of Suffrage leaders.
The Congressional Black Caucus, particularly its women members, along with many women's organizations have long pushed for this day. For the first time ever, an African American woman will be represented and honored in the Capitol.
One woman in particular made it her mission to see that Sojourner Truth was memorialized on Capitol Hill. Dr. C. Dolores Tucker deserves much of the credit for making this day happen. She unfortunately cannot be here to witness the result of her tremendous efforts because she passed away in October 2005. Dr. Tucker was a visionary leader and activist for women's and civil rights. She marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama with Dr. Martin Luther King in 1965. Later, she became the first women to serve as a Secretary of State in 1971. As a member of the Democratic National Committee, Dr. Tucker was deeply involved in efforts to ensure that women were equally represented at all levels of the Democratic party, and she was a primary organizer of the women's caucus.
She was the founding chair in 1984 of the National Political Congress of Black Women, now called the National Congress of Black Women (NCBW). As chair of the NCBW, she fought to have Sojourner Truth included in the Portrait Monument.
In 1995, I learned of Dr. Tucker's efforts to have Sojourner Truth incorporated with the other Suffragists. After many meetings with the Architect of the Capitol, the Members of the Women's Caucus, the Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, and other stakeholders, legislation was ultimately introduced in 2005 to have a separate bust commissioned and installed in the Capitol. And now four years later, here we are.
While Ms. Truth has not yet been included in the portrait monument, it is in large part due to Dr. Tucker's work that Ms. Truth will be the first African-American women with a statute on Capitol Hill.
I would also like to applaud the efforts of Michelle Battle, the National Council of Negro Women and the National Organization for Women, former Congresswoman Millender-McDonald, Congresswoman Diane Watson, and E. Faye Williams and the many other women and men who helped make this event possible.
The presence of this bust in the Capitol Hill will commemorate the struggle of women and African-Americans alike to gain equal rights in the United States. Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting H. Con. Res. 86 so that we may celebrate Sojourner Truth, a true American hero.
